


Panopticon

by MysteryMuse



Series: MMX-XXX [11]
Category: Rockman X | Mega Man X
Genre: Ball Gag, Blindfolds, Creeper Axl, Implied Relationships, M/M, OTP Feels, Porn Video, Stalking, Voyeurism, backgrounded OT3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-27
Updated: 2014-06-27
Packaged: 2018-02-06 10:18:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1854415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MysteryMuse/pseuds/MysteryMuse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tumblr ask fic. Every Hunter knew there are just some things you didn't talk about. Axl, however, should have talked about a couple of things with Zero sooner.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Panopticon

Every Hunter knew that there were some things you just didn’t talk about. Axl’s tendency to sneak off with experimental weapons and “gun polish”. The tiny fuzzy toy bear that hung from a silver keyring in Zero’s recharger, just next to the slot where his head rested.  (Never, ever ask Zero about that. Ever.) Douglas’ addiction to stimulant cubes. Lifesavor being a complete jackass. Alia’s failed audition for a singing contest reality TV show.

Another thing everyone knew about, but didn’t talk about, was The Collection.

The Collection was a library of media that had no permanent storage except as a bundle of files that passed from Hunter to Hunter in whispers and secret file-shares and anon-boxes. It had honestly started out (years ago) as a harmless thing. When you worked with Hunters like Axl, X, and Zero every day, you ended up seeing a lot of them. _A lot_ a lot. And bored Hunters or starry eyed Hunters, who were after all living audio video recorders, started collecting mementos. Six, seven-second videos, still-frames.

It really was all innocent at first. It started with a shaky clip of Zero beheading some particular Maverick – nobody remembered which one it was any more, one of the jungle ones – and then turning around and shooting the Hunter watching him this look. His hair was caught up by the wind, and there was oil on his face, and the expression that he had was shockingly weary. It was a beautiful, vulnerable, soul-tired look that was so striking, such a study in contrasts after the brutal grace of his violence, that it instantly became a viral legend among the Hunters. Who were not stupid enough to ever show that to his face, of course.

That six seconds was the beginning of The Collection, and over the next 50 years, somehow, it kept growing. There was a late one where Axl did this thing with his body and a full heels-over-head flip and a simultaneous waist-turn and it shouldn’t even have been possible but not only did he do it, he took out three separate targets at the same time. It was ridiculously epic.

There was a clip where X talked down a suicidal jumper. There was a clip where X, covered in ashes and burns, brought a cat and a baby out of a burning building and delivered them safely to their family, and then everyone cried – even X, who actually couldn’t cry but was really good at looking like he was.

And that was all fine, but then somehow The Collection morphed into The Other Collection.

Given that the start of The Other Collection was mostly medical videos, shading toward gorn, some Hunters started wondering about just how much of a jackass Lifesavor really was.

Zero in repair bay with his arm and hip in fragments, writhing and biting his tongue to stop himself screaming. X blank-eyed and limp with a huge chunk of his helmet missing and a rapidly spreading pool of blood on the table beneath him. Axl with all his chest panels open, smoke pouring out from inside, white as death, and some kind of purple substance writhing around within.

The Other Collection proved far less popular generally, but somehow, it still got passed around too. It ended up being used as shock factor to haze new Hunters- if you think you’re hot shit, look what happens to the _real_ hot shit Hunters sometimes- and somehow got online and the Mavericks started sharing it and the media got hold of it and that ended up being a whole different story that the Hunters also don’t want to talk about.

All of this is just to say: there is a long established tradition within the Hunters of swapping little pictures and videos of the Big Three.

* * *

 

Axl had started The Other Other Collection about a week after he got accepted into the Hunters. The Other Other Collection was initially just mostly Axl ogling Zero from a semi-polite-to-unseen-creeper distance. Especially if he could get Zero to take his armor off. Or let his hair down. Or just not notice him hiding in the corner of the room while Zero rubbed oil into his joints. Getting the Stealth Mode upgrade really improved The Other Other Collection, overall, and the clips started getting longer. Eventually Axl started creeping on X, too. There was this one time, with X bending over without his armor and that cute little butt wiggling back and forth and he was just _edible_.

**Anyway.**

Axl had been kind of surprised, given how bitterly X and Zero weren’t talking to each other at the time he joined the Hunters, when he found them “reconciling” about three weeks later in a dimly lit planning room. Zero thrown over a table, blindfolded with some bit of black cloth, with X quietly-but-firmly grabbing a big handful of that silky blond hair, yanking Zero’s head back, and hissing something in a guttural voice that was not at all pacifist, but did involve at least part of that word. Zero made the most impossible whimpery squealy noise, Axl almost exploded on the spot, and if it were possible to degrade a virtual MP4 from staring at it inside a player, Axl’s private replays would have burned a hole through it.

It had taken every ounce of Axl’s willpower not to share the clip with everyone in the whole damned world. Over the years he collected a few more. Always stolen, because he had to and they had to. What they didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them, right?

He was very lucky that when he finally fucked up, many years later, and accidentally grabbed one of The Other Other Collection clips while meaning to send something else, it was Zero that got it. It was one that involved X squirming around naked in chunky police-grade handcuffs while Zero bit him.

Zero turned as red as his armor.  “How long.”

“Uhm. “ Axl grinned nervously. Which was reasonable, given Zero looked ready to kill. “...Seventh?”

Gee, Zero really _could_ hit hard.

The funny thing about that was, when Axl woke up and pulled his face off the floor, there was a video message waiting for him, tagged as being from Zero. He couldn’t figure out the source at first.

He thought it might have been from The Other Collection, because it was kind of grimy looking, in a dark place that looked like some kind of dirty, abandoned warehouse.  Zero slumped naked in a chair, his head bowed. When he looked up at whoever was looking at him, he had a thick red and black ballgag stuffed in his mouth, and his hair slid loose, falling down across his shoulders and sliding over his bare chest. He made another one of those some kind of impossible noises, and the camera/Reploid moved in closer.

Axl bit his lip as the file continued to run on in his HUD. Who the hell? HOW the hell.

Then he saw the perp’s POV – blue armor. Silver and black edges at the wrist.

Oh. _OH._

White hands lifting Zero’s face by the chin, thumbs stroking his dirt-smudged cheeks. Zero looked up, his eyes molten blue with lust and yearning. It was spectacular. The hands moved, and started to stroke Zero’s chest.

The file abruptly ended and closed out. Axl almost crashed into the floor; he’d been unconsciously leaning forward, as if he were in the room with them.  

Zero had attached a note, plaintext, as a readme to the file.

_“More later. Our stash. Why didn’t you say something 30 fucking years ago?”_

**Author's Note:**

> Written in response to an ask on Tumblr from officialmegamanx. This one went a little cracky on me. Sorry!


End file.
